... so says an email circulating on some email list servers. Josh Baron is sending an email to assorted Jewish leaders on campus, as well as the Chancellor's Special Task Force on Hate and Bias, regarding the upcoming speech of Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein. Ms. Epstein, on several occasions, has compared the current Israeli policies against Palestine as being "reminiscent of the situation in Nazi Germany in 1939." Baron, who you might remember was a major proponent of the Daniel Pipes speech last year, is claiming that such language, especially the analogy of Israelis to Nazis, is offensive to the Jewish community and should not be accepted on campus.

While the language can be construed as offensive, this smells very much like an attempt to use political correctness as a weapon against an enemy ideology. Baron, who has been published in more conservative publications (including the Cal Patriot) on very pro-Israel topics, probably wasn't the best choice of spokesman against a pro-Palestine speaker. Likewise, it seems as if Baron is acting very hypocritically here. He is attacking the same codes of conduct and freedoms of speech that allowed Pipes to speak on campus in the first place. And, much of Pipes' language was construed to be racist and offensive by students in attendance.

The event with Ms. Epstein is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, October 19, at 7 PM in 213 Wheeler Hall.